Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 3 and Version 2 of Shanghai Blues, WC1V 7BD

Version 3 Version 2
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Comment added by Anonymous: Great restaurant, absolutely will be back asap. Prices not the lowest, but food quality more than justifies it. Come dressed quite smartly if you don't want to feel out of place.
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formatted_website_text='http://www.shanghaib...'
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formatted_website_text='http://www.shanghaiblues.co.uk/ '
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Fairly smart Chinese restaurant near Holborn Station, offering a good selection of dim sum. The dim sum menu includes a separate vegetarian section, with half a dozen choices, and some of the dim sum are also available in the bar area, as "lounge snacks".

They have an extensive wine list, including a few sakes, and a large spirits list, including some shochu. They also do cocktails, priced from £8, and non-alcoholic cocktails and smoothies, all priced at £6.50.

The interior is quite nice; they've gone for the sophisticated no-natural-light dark-colours kind of look, and the space is divided up into a number of different areas, including some mezzanine-style seating in little booth-like balcony things overlooking the main dining area. They also offer live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Kake, Leon, James, and others visited on a Thursday lunchtime in September 2008. We hadn't booked, and although the place was only about half-full we were kept waiting in the bar area for some time before they seated us (they gave us free nibbles of pickles and salted nuts, though). Our party of six was given a nice big round table with a lazy Susan in the middle, and part banquette seating, part ordinary chairs.

The usual free or cheap Chinese tea is not available; instead they have a tea menu with seven teas priced (per person) from £3 for Thousand-Day Flower or Xiang Pian to £5.50 for Pu Er. Kake tried the Xiang Pian, which was a light jasmine-fragranced green tea that held up well to a second brewing and almost held up to a third (they had no problem refreshing the pot with hot water when it ran out, and I didn't even need to ask the second time).

Xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings; £4 for three) were served in dinky little individual baskets, balanced on top of carrot slices. Unfortunately we weren't given spoons to eat them with, and the wrappers stuck to the carrot slices and tore; they did seem to have a reasonable quantity of soup inside, though.

Sichuan filleted pork chop (£3.60) was OK, with plenty of Sichuan peppercorns, but the meat was nothing special, and some of the pieces had quite a lot of bone. Barbecue eel fillet pastry (£4.50) didn't quite work; the pastry was very rich, which combined with the richness of the eel became a little overwhelming. Yam croquettes with mixed meat (£3.80) were crispy, and the filling was well-flavoured. Pan-fried turnip paste with mixed meat (£3.80) differed from the normal presentation of turnip paste, as it had been cubed and fried, giving a well-browned exterior and a melting interior; Kake actually preferred it after it had cooled down and solidified a little, though, and as Dos Hermanos mention in the review linked below, the fried beansprouts et al. piled on top didn't really add much. Overall, though, the food was fine; the criticisms mentioned here are really minor ones, and generally a matter of taste.

Service was fine too, with prompt teapot topping-up as mentioned above and no problem bringing us tap water in iced-and-lemoned glasses. However, the cheung fun we ordered never arrived, despite our chasing it up after a while (it didn't appear on the bill though). In all, including a couple of drinks, we paid £11/head; we'd actually expected to pay a fair bit more than that, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Kake's verdict: Would happily come back, especially if (as I suspect) dim sum is also available in the evenings. Would be interested in trying some of the cocktails too.

See also:

Last visited by Kake, Leon, James, and other Perlmongers, 4 September 2008. Opening hours, prices, and info on live jazz taken from the Shanghai Blues website, September 2008.

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